Text I. Money and Its Function

    All values in the economic system are measured in terms of money. Our goods and services are sold for money, and that money is in turn exchanged for other goods and services. Coins are adequate for small transactions, while paper notes are used for general business. There is additionally a wider sense of the “money”, covering anything which is used as a means of exchange, whatever form it may take. Originally, a valuable metal (gold, silver or copper) served as a constant store of value, and even today the American dollar is technically “backed” by the store of gold which the US government maintains. Because gold has been universally regarded as a very valuable metal, national currencies were for many years judged in terms of so-called “gold standard”.

    Nowadays however valuable metal has generally been replaced by paper notes. National currencies are considered to be as strong as the national economies which support them. Paper notes are issued by governments and authorized banks, and are known as “legal tender”. Other arrangements such as cheques and money orders are not legal tender. They perform the function of substitute money and are known as “instruments of credit”. Credit is offered only when creditors believe that they have a good chance of obtaining legal tender when they present such instruments at a bank or authorized institution. If a man’s assets are known to be considerable, then his credit will be good. If his assets are in doubt, then it may be difficult for him to obtain large sums of credit or even to pay for goods with a cheque.

    The value of money is basically its value as a medium of exchange, or, as economists put it, its “purchasing power”. This purchasing power is dependent on supply and demand. The demand for money is reckonable as the quantity needed to effect business transactions. An increase in business requires an increase in the amount of money coming into general circulation. But the demand for money is related not only to the quantity of business, but also to the rapidity with which the business is done. The supply of money, on the other hand, is the actual amount in notes and coins available for business purposes. If too much money is available, its value decreases, and it does not buy as much as it did, say, five years earlier. This condition is known as “inflation”.

        

Vocabulary notes

value – ценность

transaction - дело, сделка, операция

a means of exchange – средство обмена

a store of value – средство сохранения стоимости, средство сбережения

a constant store of value – постоянное накопления стоимости

to back ( paper money, currency) – поддерживать, обеспечивать (бумажные деньги, валюту)

store – запас

the store of gold – золотой запас

currency – 1. деньги, 2. валюта

national currency – национальная валюта

the gold standard – золотой стандарт

to abandon the gold standard – отказаться от золотого стандарта

to issue – выпускать, пускать в обращение

to issue paper notes – выпускать бумажные деньги

authorized – официально принятый, разрешенный, санкционированный

authorized banks – банки, наделённые определёнными правами, уполномоченные банки

legal tender – законное платёжное средство, официально принято государством (банкноты)

cheque – чек

а money order – платёжное поручение

substitute money – представитель платёжных средств

instruments of credit – кредитные обязательства (векселя, чеки, облигации)

assets – 1. активы, 2. средства, капитал

the value of money – стоимость денег

a medium of exchange – 1. средство обмена, расчёта, 2. средство обращения (как функция денег)

purchasing power – покупательская способность

to reckon – подсчитывать, исчислять

reckonable - исчисляемый

circulation – обращение

comе into general circulation – поступать в совокупное обращение

the demand for money – спрос на деньги

the supply of money – 1. денежная масса (сумма денег в обращении), количество денег, 2. предложение денег

the quantity of business – количество операций, объём бизнеса

the rapidity of business – скорость осуществления операций в бизнесе

available – имеющийся в наличии

⇐ Предыдущая16171819202122232425Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: